Opening ceremonies and such

Last night was the opening ceremony that kicked off the competion. Lots of kids, noise and lasers as well as everything blinky. Each state or country had their own blinky thing in one form or another – be it necklaces like us or glasses, hats, swords, pom-poms, you name it.

Just like the Olympics there is a parade of teams with the international teams coming into the arena first. This year there are teams from Russia, Japan, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico and Canada.

There will be 843 teams competing in 5 problem categories. Our team does not compete until Saturday morning. There are off practicing now.

This year Vermont had seats in the front row. Literally our seats were the first row of the first section. Way better than our nosebleed seating from last year. The boys were thrilled. The girls from the team marched in the parade so they were literally on the floor. Doesn’t get much better than that. Here is a picture of the boys waiting for the festivities to start. The girls were already lined up outside somewhere.